FARMERS' R E G I S T E R. 



459 



piirt of the country never attain to any great mag- 

 nitiiile. Wlien the cro[) of olives is very small, 

 tliey are generally attacked by insecls. The an- 

 nual average quantity oil produced from each tree 

 is only about two quaris. Tlie best oil lor eating 

 is extracted cold ; what is extracted by warm wa- 

 ter is used lor hurninir, and lor soap, and other ma- 

 nuliictures. The od of Marseilles is certainly 

 more pure and beautiful than I have elsewhere 

 seen it. The finest oil of France is produced at 

 Aix, eight Icciirues norih of JMarseillps. 



I walked with M. Negrel to the Botanic Gar- 

 den, l()r the director ot' which I had also a letter. 

 The garden is neither extensive, nor particularly 

 well lurnished. The conservatory is handsome, 

 but is too large to be easily heated. Tiie collec- 

 tion of plants is insignificant compared with that 

 of Montpelier. I saw a swamp oak, a pretty 

 large tree, and a splendid specimen of the caout- 

 chouc, in the conservatory. A specimen of tlie 

 latter in the open air had been killed by the frosts 

 of the preceding week, notwithstanding its having 

 been wrapped up with straw mats. 



Monday, 5th December. — Having engaged a 

 cabriolet and a guide from my maitre iVhotel, I 

 proceeded at an early hour to Roquevaire ; the 

 distance is about 12 or 14 miles in an easterly di- 

 rection. The road almost every where proceeded 

 among sleep accliviiies, throuyh a country which 

 the industry of man has won from its original bar- 

 renness, and which is on all sides cultivated like a 

 garden, with every variety of produce. The hills, 

 or rather mountains, which bountied the horizon 

 to the right, Ibrmed a very rugged and picturesque 

 back-ground to this picture of industry. There is 

 scarce a spot which, by any degree of labor, 

 could be gained liotn the rocks, that is not under 

 cultivation ; and the same field frequently bears at 

 the same time a triple crop; first is a triple or 

 quadruple row of vines, then an open space from 

 6 to 12 leet wide, under corn or leirumes ; (and [ 

 c«u!d not but observe the garden pea several 

 inches above ihe soil, and perfectly uninjured, not- 

 withstanding the severity of the late frosts;) last- 

 ly, there is, with every third row of vines, a row 

 of olives, and not unlrequently the whole is sur- 

 rounded by a hedge of mulberries. The same 

 system is pursued on the sides of hills so steep, 

 that it is necessary at every 12 leet to have a wall 

 three liiet in height. Notwithstanding the natu- 

 ral ruggedness and poverty of this country, it ap- 

 pears 10 be every where teeming with a fine, 

 liealthy, and well led population. 



Between 11 and 12 o'clock I arrived at the house 

 of M. Brest, the i/entleman to whom, in the ab- 

 sence of the Mayor, M. Negrel had given me a 

 letter. Besides being a proprietor of land, M. 

 Brest is an extensive soap manufacturer and mer- 

 chant; his premises are very extensive, and com- 

 prise a great variety of acconmaodation. In 

 several of^ the rooms on the ground floor, women 

 were employed in packing raisins into boxes and 

 li'ails, similar in every respect to those used at 

 Malaga, and the prices of the raisins appeared also 

 to approach very near to those of that place. 



The first quality is made from the Pause or 

 Passe, a largish white grape, but by no nieans so 

 large as some others. The skin is rather fine 

 than hard ; the bunches are sometimes very large, 

 although M. Brest informed me, that they are re- 

 duced in drying to one-lourth of their original 



weight. The second quality is from the jirignan; 

 the raioins of this grape are ciiually well flavored, 

 and keep as well, but are smaller. When the for- 

 mer are thirty liancs the quintal of 100 pounds, the 

 latter are only from 20 to 25. The third quality 

 consists of the smaller and loose grapes of the 

 others, which are packed in frails ; they are worih 

 from 15 to 10 francs per quintal. The raisins of 

 Roquevaire are paiked in boxes, containing 12, 25, 

 and 50 pounds, as at Malaga ; but between every 

 two inches in thickness of grapes they spread a 

 sheet of wliiie paper. These raisins, M. Brest 

 says, keep the whole year through. They are 

 certainly, in every respect, inltirior to the raisins in 

 Malaga. Their preparation invariably consists in 

 immersion in a boiling lie previous to drying. 

 They do not appear to be aware that it is possible 

 to preserve the raisins without this previous pre- 

 paration. M. Negrel says, the efTect of the lie, 

 in which they are kept from 15 to 20 seconds, ia to 

 open very fine cracks in the skin of the grapes, by 

 which cracks the moisture evaporates. The 

 strength of the lye is of the fifth degree of Beaume'a 

 hydrometer, wliich is equal in specific gravity, at 

 the temperature of 55 of Fahrenheit, to about 

 1.032. After having been dipped in this lie tho^ 

 grapes are spread out on cZoics, which consist of 

 a number of reeds tied together, so as to form a flat 

 surface of about seven feet by four. They arft 

 brought under coverevery niirht, and if the season 

 is fine they are usually sufTicienlly dried in five 

 days, though in the latter part of the season it 

 sometimes requires fifieen days to dry them suf- 

 ficiently. The preparation of raisins commences 

 abx)ut the 25lh of Angus', and continues during the 

 whole of September, and sometimes as late as the 

 1st of November. Tho>^e raisins are finest which 

 are dried in the shortest time. The neighborhood 

 of Roquevaire is the only part of France where 

 dried raisins are prepared as an article of com- 

 merce ; in other parts they are cured by particular 

 individuals lor their own consumption. The 

 Panse Musque, or Muscat of jlkxandria, is also 

 Ibund in this district ; but allhou<jh M. Negrel 

 says it is the iilentical variety which yields the 

 Muscatel raisins oi'Malaga, and though he strong- 

 ly recommends it to cultivators in prelerence to the 

 others, it is very seldom made into raisins. M. 

 Brest says, the ihickness of its skin makes it very 

 difficult 10 dry it in Ibis climate. M. Negrel also 

 says, that the Pause Musque is less cultivated 

 than the Panse, liecause it is very delicate in fiow- 

 erinL', and frequently bliirhts. He says, however, 

 that this may be remedied by pruning it long, and 

 cultivatiiiij it in a trellis ; the common Panse also 

 requires to be pruned rather long. The whole 

 quaniity of raisins of the first quality produced for 

 sale in Provence, does not, in the average of years, 

 exceed 4,000 quintals, (400,000 pounds.) Accord- 

 ing to M. Brest the preparation o( raisins is nearly 

 on a par. as far as regards profit, with ilie making 

 of wine. During the continental war, when it 

 was impossible to import the raisins of Malaga and. 

 Calabria, those o{' Provence were in much greater 

 demand, and their cultivation was much more pro- 

 fitable. 



M. Brest had also a large quantity of figs 

 packed in boxes, and ready for packing. The 

 preparation of these consists simply in drying them 

 on the clai&s for four or five days after they are 

 pulled. The flat form which mcst of them have 



